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The safest way to make you have everything you need is to use Disk Utility or a backup program. To use Disk Utility: Start it running, File > New Disk Image (to copy whole machine) or File > New > New Disk Image from Folder. (See Disk Utility Help)

It is much easier to use a third party program. I like SuperDuper! because after the first backup it backs up only changes (this feature costs money). To back up your whole machine for free either the free version of SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner are popular. Find them at VersionTracker.

SuperDuper is great. I set it to do a "smart update" every day to an external HD. Only yesterday I discovered that my iPhoto library was screwed - probably my fault - and just dragged the previous day's back-up straight over. It's a lifesaver.

To set up the space on the external HD for the back up, do you match up the space on the external HD with the advertised HD space of a Mac? For example, a 80G HD in a Mac can be about 70GB storage after being formatted. Do you still allocate 80G on your external HD (as it is recommended to set up the dedicated partition on the external HD for back up purposes)? Or, do you just go with the actual figure which is about 70 GB?

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